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Game Mechanics
Just Shapes & Beats is a rhythm bullet hell game with the goal of avoiding pink obstacles, enemies and hazards while reaching until the end of the level to advance further. The game has a number of Mechanics in which pulsates to the beat, creating a more eventful challenge and atmosphere. Controls These are the default controls for the game, which cannot be changed. Dash The Player can dash towards the direction it is moving by pressing the spacebar key on PC. When it dashes, it gains a brief period of invincibility, allowing the player to dash through obstacles without harm. It needs to be controlled in moderation though, otherwise, the player might crash to an obstacle by accident. Dashing is crucial for almost every level in the game (especially when getting an S rank in Challenge or Playlist modes), as the player character can dash through obstacles that would normally be impossible to dodge, though it is possible to complete a level without dashing. Health Points and Lives Health Points (also known as Hit Points or commonly abbreviated as HP) is the number of points that the Player can hit before breaking. Should the player get hit by a pink obstacle or a boss, it'll take damage, losing a single health point. Its HP can be indicated at their character. If all of the player's health points are lost, it will break and rewind to the last unlocked checkpoint. Hit Points are never regained until the end of the level, if a new checkpoint is unlocked (in multiplayer mode and if revived) or if the player breaks. The number of HP of the player depends on the level that it is playing. In normal levels, the player can take 3 hits before breaking. But in Boss Levels, the player can take 6 hits. This is the compensation for having no checkpoints during a boss level. When Casual Mode is enabled, the player's HP is increased by 6 and 12 in normal levels and boss levels respectively. In a multiplayer game, if a player loses all of their HP, instead of breaking, they will stop moving and helplessly float around the play area. In this state, they need to be rescued by another player (which is simply done by moving to the player that needs help). Following their rescue, they'll gain a brief period of invulnerability before returning back to the game with one HP left. Should the broken player reach past the edge of the border, they cannot be revived until another player reaches another checkpoint. Like HP, the player has a limited number of Lives (also known as Rewinds) it can take before receiving a Game Over. If all of the players break, they will lose one life. All players share lives with each other, meaning as long as the other players are still alive, they can continue the level without them. An exception to this is in Party Mode. All of the players can take damage in this mode, their HP is doubled too, but the players will never break. They can respawn for several seconds after they break. In Playlist Mode, the player can be damaged and be broken normally, but they have unlimited lives. Game Over If the player(s) loses all three lives in Story Mode or in Challenge Mode, they'll receive a game over. A scene will display their player character shattering before its pieces start falling down on to the floor, accompanied by the phrase "IT'S OVER". If the player presses the Enter key, the scene will rewind for a moment and show the player character trying to fix itself. Pressing Enter five times will successfully fix the player character as it floats up to the screen, the text changes to "IT'S '''NOT' OVER"'' as soon as the player reassembles itself. This will continue the game back to the level where the player hasn't completed yet. If the player presses the Enter key five times before the shattered pieces fall to the floor, the sequence will be shorter. With much of the events during this scene played as a much faster speed, effectively a quick retry. If the player receives a game over in Challenge Mode, the process of retrying is simplified. The player can just press Enter once before retrying Challenge Mode over again. If they don't want to retry, the player otherwise can press Escape. Checkpoints During a normal level, a blue broken line passes from right to left, passing through that line will unlock a checkpoint, in addition to reviving any broken players left in play. Checkpoints can be seen at the game's progress bar. The last blue line (at the progress bar's triangle) is not a checkpoint, however that signals the end of the level before its track fades out (or finishes). If the player breaks during the level, they'll rewind and go back to the last checkpoint, but they'll lose one life. For multiplayer, one player can pass through a checkpoint and every other players can rewind back at that checkpoint if all players break. By default, the player already unlocked one checkpoint, that is, the beginning of the level. There are no checkpoints during Boss Levels. Other Mechanics Other mechanics that are not covered in the game. In Story Mode, the player can 'annoy' the Blue Cube by moving into spaces which cannot be possible for the Blue Cube to move in. This will make the Blue Cube respond in frustration. This also happens in Chapter Select. Story Mode Exceptions Mechanics that are exempted in some way or another when featured in Story Mode. * Throughout Corrupted - a tutorial level, the Blue Cube has an unlimited number of lives. The HP remains unchanged, however. ** Additionally, the Cube unlocks checkpoints by collecting triangles and not by going through the blue line. Although a blue line will appear after the player finishes the level. * In some of the game's story sequences, the Cube can get damaged and will be knocked back to where it was before. In other story sequences, the Cube can break if it fails to move out of a hazard, if that happens, the game will rewind back for a few moments and continues as usual. * The blue line that ends the level does not appear during New Game and Annihilate. Instead, the Boss finishes the level during their respective levels. * There is a nonstandard game over once the player completes Annihilate, the scene proceeds as usual, but as soon as the Cube fixes itself, the main antagonist smashes the Cube and shatters it. This process repeats if the player tries it again. After leaving the Cube broken for a few moments, the next story sequence will begin. ** If the player breaks before the level ends, the game over scene proceeds as intended. * The following level after Annihilate - Till It's Over - the reborn Blue Cube must bring down the main antagonist's HP to zero by damaging it, in a form of a "Shoot 'em Up" game. This is seen at the bottom of the screen, where it displays a health bar. Once the health bar is depleted, the level will end. The Blue Cube's HP is unlimited, so the player doesn't have to worry about losing on this level. Trivia * The music that plays once the player character fixes itself in a game over is Ember by Kubbi. Category:Features